District 300 to add classrooms to two schools

Carpentersville students can expect relief from crowded hallways and mobile classrooms after the Community Unit District 300 school board voted Monday to expand east-side schools.

The board voted to spend $5.3 million to add six classrooms each to Parkview and Golfview elementary schools -- both in Carpentersville.

The board approved the least costly option before it. Two other plans -- which would have added at least six classrooms to Algonquin Middle School -- would have cost more than $16 million.

"It is the least disruptive of the three scenarios and financially seems to be the right decision," board member Mary Warren said.

The plan the board approved will move about 230 students from Carpentersville's Perry Elementary School, which was over capacity this year, to Parkview and Meadowdale elementary schools, also in Carpentersville.

Under the plan, roughly 48 students from Meadowdale will shift to Algonquin Lakes Elementary School.

The additions will also create more space for preschool and full-day kindergarten.

The changes are scheduled for the 2009-10 school year.

In the intervening year, several classes at Perry and Golfview -- the two most crowded elementary schools in the district -- will be housed in mobile classrooms.

The school board has pledged that the mobiles will be used for only one year.

The cost of the additions will be paid with the $19 million in bond revenue the district expects to have left after finishing middle school renovations this year.

The $19 million will be the last chunk of the $185 million in bonds voters approved in 2006. The district estimates it will cost taxpayers $356.6 million to pay off the bonds.

Board President Joe Stevens voted for the additions while continuing to question whether the board was breaking its pledge to use the bond money to build a new elementary school.

"The kids on the east side need relief," Stevens said.

But he added, "I felt that adding a new school was an appropriate use of referendum funds," while the additions were not.

Board member and referendum critic John Ryan cast the sole dissenting vote.

Like Stevens, Ryan said the district promised to build another school -- not additions -- with the bond funds. He also said the district didn't fully explore the costs and implications of the options for the east side.

"The what-ifs were not adequately answered to my satisfaction to get a 'yes' vote," Ryan said.